Saturday, 24 October 2015

Doctor Who: The Woman Who Lived

It's a shame as I was quite looking forward to this episode but unfortunately I felt that it was just slightly lacking. I think it was the subplot with Leandro that I felt just didn't quite fit, just because the series normally has an enemy of the week doesn't mean that it should. The time could have been better spent providing more scenes between the Doctor and Ashildr/Me or showing us more of what she was up to in the years between The Girl Who Died and The Woman Who Lived, just fleshing her past out that little bit more.

I thought the episode was great when looking at that and at the immortality of Me, the scene of her mourning her children particularly heart breaking and the body being immortal but the mind not, and if the episode had just concentrated on that then I think that it could have been a great episode. Maisie Williams managing to just convey the pain and anger of being immortal and relishing the dual role of The Knightmare/Lady Me. Rufus Hound was also on good form as Sam the Swift, quite possibly and hopefully another character that may pop up again somewhere down the line. I would be interesting to see how he has handled being immortal and if the anger has also set in. It was also nice to hear Captain Jack Harkness being mentioned in relation to immortal characters.

Another fun part was The Doctor and Me breaking into the house to steal the amulet, showing that Capaldi and Williams can pull of the lighter stuff together as well as the darker parts. Me setting herself up as a kind of anti-Doctor could lead to more guest appearances in the future though I highly doubt it will be full-time due to Game of Thrones.

The most obvious thing to note would be the lack of Clara in the episode until the final scene. We know that Jenna Coleman will be departing the TARDIS between now and the end of the season so it was interesting that Clara missed an episode and when she did appear it ominously foretold her departure with the Doctor sensing/knowing that something was coming and Clara saying that she would never leave.

Overall The Woman Who Lived had a great premise, unfortunately for me it just fell short of it.